small world after all

The world is indeed a small place. Either that or, we're more connected to each other than we realise.

I was invited to my client counterpart's team dinner during the long weekend after CNY. Now I have rolled off this client account, but he has since regarded me as a friend, and not just a consultant on the project.

I did insist that it would be quite strange to join his team dinner, even though he did mention before that he has always wanted to host one at his place. After having settled his wife and kids in the country, he made good on his promise and sent an invite out.

It was quite a mix of ethnicity and nationalities eating and mingling that balmy afternoon. Having been a foreigner myself, I can appreciate the joy of labour that goes into hosting a party for friends.

While catching up with his team, some whom I've also regarded as friends since I've been on that company even longer than them, I found out that one team member's wife used to be my uni-mate!

After bringing up various points of commonalities, we realised we were classmates back in our Engineering degree days. Now she's married and have just given birth to a baby girl. Naturally I asked how they met, both seemed to be quite in sync when they said "Arranged, unfortunately!"

*  *  *

A week after that home-cooked Pakistani lunch, I found out that I could possibly be working with a former recruiter on an upcoming project. She was previously from the same client account, but has since moved on to another MNC.

Even though we've only briefly worked together for some parts of the project, I was surprised to hear her being quite chatty and open about the current situation of the company. Well, if I were to get into this account, I'd have an ally instead of someone who's never worked with consultants before.

*  *  *

Also during the same week, I had a call from an e-commerce company seemingly on an aggressive recruitment drive. After doing a quick search, found out that a former analyst have joined that company. Such a stroke of blessing (I try not to believe in luck!), we kinda got reunited at another former analyst's wedding over the weekend.

Naturally, I told her about what I found out, and she gave me a quick rundown of the company profile and how it compared with my current company. Interesting insights, especially when it involved some German managers whose ways of working are quite different from us Asians.


Interesting how the bits and pieces that seemed to have left us can find their way back to our lives.